When you're too tall for the ride

Has anyone had trouble with their feet on wing coasters? I'm 6'4" with long legs and the warning signs about not extending your legs on the ride make me a little nervous. I find myself focusing on the position of my legs during the ride. It would be nice to not have to do that.

I'm 6'6" with long legs and have ridden 4 wing coasters. I have never had a problem with them.

As far as the signs saying not to extend your legs. I think they are saying not to put your feet on the car in front of you.

6'6" and the only ride I ever was denied on was Green Lantern at SFMM. Always get asked prior to wing coasters, though, but never denied. Barely got on Superman at SFNE a few years ago. The height check thingy hit my head, but the girl didn't seem to be concerned (yay!).

My only 'issue' is actually on Valravn at CP... In the front seat, as the train just turns to go up the lift, my foot hit the steps and kicked it back. Scared the hell out of me. Yet, that ride has no height restriction AFAIK. I can fairly easily touch the catwalks with my foot from row 1, as well. I tend to lift my legs up at the "at risk" moments on that ride.

No issue in row 2 or 3, since they are higher due to elevated seating.

I can't touch anything if I tried on a wing coaster.

Steel Dragon 2000 has a height limit of 185cm (73").

Fortunately it's not always enforced.

Yes thankfully. I was able to ride twice (and still can’t get that stupid theme song out of my head).

you’re.

Update to this thread: I went back to Knott's this past September. This time I talked with the ride-op standing at the front of the fast pass line, and demonstrated that I could fit safely in the test seat. She radioed to the station attendants and they let me on! I enjoyed the ride and lived to tell about it. I'm still not sure why the height requirement is there!

SteveWoA said:
I am 77-78" as well... The only ride I have ever been turned away from was Green Lantern at SFMM.

You're fortunate, in that regard.

Green Lantern may well have been the absolute most unpleasant coaster I have ever had the displeasure of riding. It's true; when the Six Flags announcements for 2020 came out, the real winner was Magic Mountain and the real loser was La Ronde, both for precisely the same reason.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:

You're fortunate, in that regard.

Green Lantern may well have been the absolute most unpleasant coaster I have ever had the displeasure of riding. It's true; when the Six Flags announcements for 2020 came out, the real winner was Magic Mountain and the real loser was La Ronde, both for precisely the same reason.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

No doubt!... The S&S 4D free-spins are bad enough! I can't imagine a "worse" version of a similar ride. I wish they would stop cloning those damn things.

While I did enjoy my ride on SFGAdv's one (Joker), I'll admit that the S&S freespin model is certainly not for everyone.

From almost all the reviews I've heard/read, the Green Lantern Intamin version is for NO ONE.

However, I've also heard that the Intamin zacspins overseas, unlike GL, are actually decent rides and more functional (namely, Insane at Grona Lund).

Could this possibly be a result of the supposed Intaride quality discrepancy that I've read about in the Hagrid's forum?

This is an interesting topic for me as I am 6'5" (200 lbs) Basically tall and skinny, not big. Each roller coaster has that height stick located at various locations to check the kids height. It's there for the ride operators to see if people are tall enough to ride. But technically, the TOP of those sticks is the limit for TALL people like me. I tower over that piece of lumber by 6 inches at most times for most rides. When I am standing in line I usually lean back against the railings so my head does not stand out. I have been questioned a few times at different rides but never denied.

My closest call was when I finally got up to Six Flags New Jersey to ride Kingda Ka. For the first time I saw that measuring stick with a bar to see if you were too small AND an upper bar to see if you were too tall! I nearly crapped my pants when I saw that! I drove all the way up here and spent all of this money and I am not going to be able to ride?!? The top bar was touching the top of my head and the kid was like "Sir stand straight" I said "I am, i have this natural hook in my back." (LOL) Whew, he let me through. So yeah I am at 77" and would have been turned away if a half inch taller.

I have two kids and remember the stress and unhappiness when they were growing up and couldn't ride a ride at that "next" level... I never thought that this would have happened to me at this age.

At 6'3 (1m91), roller coasters in Asia are a challenge. Steel Dragon like Richard said has that 1m85 maximum height restriction, but elsewhere in Asia has some weird maximum height restrictions. Like, that for example the awesome Python in Bamboo Forest at Sunac Land Nanchang. Its a GCI with standard Millennium Flyers... no issues, right? Wrong. The park threw a random max 1m85 height restriction, but I had no issues when I went since my friend arranged my visit in advance and cleared things.

Parks in Asia and Europe also like to play with the restraints and make them tighter than usual. I could ride Mako, Nitro and the likes in America... but got denied a ride on Music Roller Coaster at Happy Valley Beijing. Picture the seats on Fury with the extra seat belt. Now, the park installed the sensor so it would require one further click than the american B&M hyper coasters. Hollywood Dream (Universal Studios Japan), Steel Dragon (Nagashima Spaland) and Shambhala (Port Aventura in Spain) also require that extra click. The most ridiculous situation was during a media shoot I attended at Sunac Land Wuxi (again in China) where even though I buckled the seat belt on the B&M Wing Coaster Falcon and maintenance was ok... the ride manager told me "You're too fat and will break the ride!" and kicked me off the ride.

Over at Hanchang Ocean Park in Shanghai, they have an amazing new generation Intamin LSM Coaster that I rode during the IAAPA event. My friend again spoke to the staff and they pointed me toward one specific seat that had a little extra room. Hopefully, the seats on Pantheon won't be as tight as that one...

@Absimilliard I'm kicking around a family vacation to Europe and Port Adventura might make the list. I noticed several of their rides have a 1.95m (or 76.7") max height restriction. Were they enforcing this? I'm 76" barefoot, and with shoes may be just over that number.

Llama Drama said:

However, I've also heard that the Intamin zacspins overseas, unlike GL, are actually decent rides and more functional (namely, Insane at Grona Lund).

Could this possibly be a result of the supposed Intaride quality discrepancy that I've read about in the Hagrid's forum?

I always assumed it came from the "I've been overseas and you haven't" mentality encouraged by a certain Starbucks related group.

I watched my son ride Green Lantern at SFMM and said No F'in way! Every single car looked to take the dive closest to the ground with the riders bearing all of their weight, increased by whatever G's it was pulling, directly on their shoulders.

Green Lantern First Flight issues stemmed from the cars that were weighted down by Six Flags to prevent flipping. Employees were also told to balance riders as perfectly as possible "to prevent flips". The end result is what Tommytheduck pointed out: every rider entered the final dive upside down, crushing down under their own weight. Another side effect of the no flip policy was that the forces that were supposed to flip the car were instead thrown as positive forces on riders.

La Ronde requested Green Lantern as they feel they can make the ride work, something they've proven with other rides like Demon. Demon was a used Mondial Rollover that barely worked at first and La Ronde maintenance department improved to the point it runs reliably. The Chance Falling Star was good for scrap at SFSTL... runs like new at La Ronde. For Vipere, La Ronde name for Green Lantern, remove the extra weights, let it flip and let guests enjoy the extreme ride.

Danimales said:

@Absimilliard I'm kicking around a family vacation to Europe and Port Adventura might make the list. I noticed several of their rides have a 1.95m (or 76.7") max height restriction. Were they enforcing this? I'm 76" barefoot, and with shoes may be just over that number.

My friend didn't notice any enforcing and he is 1m93, but he did notice that the park was pretty awful when it came to restraints. He got the regular seatbelt on Dragon Khan buckled and got moved to the double seatbelt seat anyway as the park decided that B&M was wrong with its seatbelts and demanded an extra click in the regular seat.

Speaking of Spanish parks, Parque de Atracciones in Madrid seems to have a ridiculous 1.87m max height for Tornado. Anyone know how strictly that is enforced?

I'm 6'3". Max height limits in the U.S. are generally at least 6'4", so I find that I frequently get measured but am almost always permitted to ride. Many Maurer mice do seem to have a 75" maximum posted on the ride safety sign, but enforcement on those is usually pretty lax. The exception is SFNE, where I got denied a ride on Gotham City Gauntlet. So far that remains the only non-kiddie ride where I was denied due to height.